Death and the King’s Horseman

In 1986, Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka became the first African Nobel Laureate in Literature. In 2006, Soyinka becomes the first non-Western playwright in WSC’s repertoire. The king has died and the king’s horseman is bound by law and custom to commit suicide and accompany his ruler to heaven. The interference of the colonial district officer in this essential Yoruba rite, however, ignites the play toward its dramatic climax. John Vreeke directs Death and the King’s Horseman — about an actual event that took place in Oyo, Nigeria.